1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method to selectively receive electronic mail, and more particularly, to a method to selectively receive electronic mail by using only mail header information in an Internet mail apparatus, and a method to selectively transmit/delete electronic mail from an incoming mail server.
2. Description of the Related Art
An Internet mail apparatus is defined as a facsimile, a scanner, or a printer having a mail receiving function, excluding a Personal Computer (PC).
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a general process of transmitting and receiving electronic mail. Referring to FIG. 1, in a mail transmitting and receiving block 10, which is well-known in the art, a sending party and a receiving party are linked to each other through the Internet.
The sending party includes an outgoing mail client (or a client program for sending electronic mail) 1 and an outgoing mail server 3. The outgoing mail client 1 transmits mail to the outgoing mail server 3 using a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
The receiving party includes an incoming mail server 5 and an incoming mail client 7 (or a client program for receiving electronic mail). The incoming mail server 5 transmits mail to the mail client 7 using Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3).
The incoming mail client 7 periodically accesses the incoming mail server 5 and receives (or downloads) all mail or new mail from a mail box in the incoming mail server 5. In this case, the incoming mail client 7 also periodically receives spam mail.
Accordingly, as the incoming mail client 7 receives the spam mail which a user does not want to receive, a communications cost of the Internet mail apparatus which uses a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) increases. Also, as the Internet mail apparatus having a print function to receive and print the spam mail, the printing cost increases.